Skate Dallas

Skate Dallas went well. I will post a video soon. I only did the Bronze freeskate, and I got first. It was the person I competed against, their first competition. My sister and I have decided that it's time for me to move up to silver. Problem is, we just did this program, so I'll probably just stick with it through Skate Houston. We'll have to tweak some things, but it's 20 seconds shorter than a silver program can be, so I'm a little worried about that. I think I'll still be able to do okay. I watched the silver skaters yesterday, one of them was no doubt better than me. I think the other one was comparable. So that made me feel better. Although, I would rather get last skating silver against real competition, than first skating bronze where there is no question. The silver should challenge me some more.
As for the bluebonnet open, I'm still trying to make some decisions. I REALLY need to work on getting tested, and I want to go to the river that weekend. But at the same time, this is my home competition, and I don't really want to miss it. So, I think I'm going to go ahead and do it. I've already got a program, so that won't need as much work as it needed before this competition.
Okay, I've already decided on my next music, so I'm going to work on cutting it.

Dance

I've decided that I'm going to take at least one dance class this summer. The question is, which one(s). Part of me wants to take some ballet, but it's been so long. I know that would be good for my skating, though. I will definately take a jazz class. Part of me also wants to take hip hop, mostly because the drill team I'm working with is really into hip hop, so I think I would be able to coreograph better for them if I was better at hip hop. :) Decisions decisions.

As for the skating...my program went better yesterday evening. My sister worked me really hard on it, so that was nice. I still don't feel like it's great, but what matters is that it's good by next weekend, great by skate austin. My sister is going to have my neice work with the coreographer a couple mornings next week, so that will be a perfect opportunity for her to work with me. Maybe we can go ahead and learn my artistic routine so the next week I can do nothing but that. All these competitions are just coming up on me. Skating alot more has really been good for me, though.

Skate Dallas

Skate Dallas is next weekend and I must say that I'm pretty nervous. I ran my program twice with music this morning. The first time it was a little rough. The second time went better, but I messed up my footwork at the end and I'm not comfortable enough with it to be able to pick it back up. So we'll see. I do have a couple of more practices, so hopefully I can get my sister to work with me and I won't look dumb. :)
I also have an ISI competition in Dallas the weekend after that. I'm just doing my artistic routine, but the problem is that I haven't learned my artistic routine yet. :) So that should be a whole lot of fun.

Sick and stuff

I started getting sick on wednesday, but I sucked it up and skated some anyway. My sister and I started working on my new freeskate routine. I think it should be good. I'm starting to think I hate the music, though. Oh well, I'll get over it. In my new artistic she wants me to do a waltz jump, half loop, salchow combination. Fat chance. The waltz jump half loop is okay. Hooking a salchow onto the end is crazy. So we'll just have to see about that. She also put all this crazy footwork in there. She says that's what I get for making her choreograph the day after watching worlds. *sigh*
So that was wednesday, I haven't skated since then because I've been sick. Not sure what I've got, bronchitis or something, but it has sucked. I still don't feel 100%, or even really 80%. Oh well. I'm hoping to get back on the ice tomorrow, so we'll see how that goes considering I'm having a hard time breathing. (who needs to breathe anyway :-p)
I almost forgot. She also told me she wants me to test the standard track freeskate. So...it looks like I'm going to be taking Preliminary MITF and Pre-Pre freeskate at the end of may. Awesome. :(

Slept in

I missed my powerskating class and both freestyle sessions this morning because I couldn't get out of bed. :( I am very sad because this means no skating until monday unless I do public tomorrow...but public sucks, so we'll see. I skated so well last night too so I was looking forward to this morning. My camel spin is finally consistent and according to my sister, looks pretty good. My sitspin is also improving. So right now I'm working on a camel-sit-scratch-change foot. I also started working on a layback yesterday. So I finally have lots to do, and I missed the session because I'm stupid and decided to sleep instead. Oh well..I had a rough week and I was exhausted, so I guess I earned it. *sigh* I'm off to do some more housework now.

New Programs!

Yay! I'm finally getting new programs. I'm getting a new bronze program to some music from madagascar, and I'm also getting a new artistic to music from dick tracy. So I'm pretty excited. I had done my other program into the ground. I'm also getting new dresses. I ordered one from Sharene, and the one from my artistic I got off ebay. I'll post more once I start learning.

Showskate video

I got a video camera for my birthday, and I have been very excited about using it. So here's the video of my showskate routine. My husbands cinematic talents leave something to be desired, so when I get a better video I'll post it.

Showskate!

Austin showskate was last night. I did a duet with my niece Ally, and then I did my solo to a Chorus Line. Both routines went pretty well. I was nervous about my solo because I was the lowest skater in the group of 4. Ally and I did okay. We got 4th out of 5 which was a little dissappointing, but I didn't really expect much. I got 2nd on my solo which I was very excited about because this is probably the toughest competition I've had so far. So I was very pleased with my performances. I'm planning on posting my videos once I get my camera back from my sister and get them downloaded.

New Blades!

Well, I got new blades today. I was planning on just going up to the rink and scheduling to get them mounted next monday because I have the Austin Showskate competition this weekend. However, Charles said that he thought I would adjust fine to the new blades and he had them in stock, so he went ahead and mounted them. I decided to stick with the proffessional mostly because of cost, and they've worked for me so far, so why not? I'm excited, I can't wait to skate on them, so I just might have to go to the 7 am session tomorrow. I just hope they're aligned properly.

Pre-Pre MITF

Well, I passed my pre-preliminary moves in the field test today. I am very happy, especially because I've been having skate issues for the past week or so. Turns out that the blades I have (I bought them used), the rocker was completely sharpened off by whoever had them previously, so, this was good news and bad news for me. The good news is that this probably has alot to do with my inability to spin, but the bad news is that now I have to get new blades. I've decided to stick with the Proffessional for now. I really like the blade overall, and I think they will be fine for me learning my doubles. I may have to upgrade next time. We'll see.
So now I'm going to start working on my Preliminary MITF so that I can hopefully test those in April. I would like to take my silver test by the end of year so I can go to adult nationals competing silver.
In other news I went to my first power skating class on saturday. Basically, it was awesome. It was a little rough, because it's go-go-go and I didn't know what I was supposed to be doing most of the time, but hopefully the next couple of times I'll get better. I think it's really going to help my skating, especially with those crossovers I have to do for preliminary.

Selling Skates

So...I needed to write in a seperate post about my desire to start making some extra money for ice skating. I'm thinking I might want to start selling ice skates. There's no one in the Austin area that sells them anymore, as the woman I bought mine from stopped selling them. So I'm wanting to start. I need to find out what all I need to do.

Synchro bitchfest

$70 is the amount I pay per month to be on my rink's synchro team. We pay $70 regardless if we practice 4 times a month, or if we only practice 2.
$90 is the amount I paid for a synchro jacket and t-shirt.
$190 is the amount I am paying for my synchro dress that we will wear exactly twice. $190 is approximately $140 more than any other ice skating dress I currently own.
$750 is the amount I've estimated I will spend on Air fare and hotel for our trip to ISI (yes...ISI...*barf*) Worlds.
$100 is the amount I estimate I will spend on entry fees for ISI Worlds.

Am I leaving anything out? If not, that brings my grand total spent on Synchro this year to around $2000. That is approximately 5% of my gross annual salary. Is this worth it? Somedays I'm not so sure. *sigh*

A DOUBLE?!?!

Holy moly. I think it's time I invest in some crash pads. Today at the rink my sister suggested I try a double toe-loop. After I got done looking at her like she had lost her mind and I realized that she was serious, I decided to go for it. On my first attempt she said I made it about 1.5 rotations before I popped out and promptly fell in a slightly painful split sort of position. After that we decided to do some toe-loop-loop combos, and then I tried it once more, but I was too freaked out and only made it one revolution. So yeah...she said she wants me to start playing around with that. Pretty darn exciting...and scary at the same time!

Ow

I am VERY sore today. My sister made me do about 50 lutzes last night, and today I can barely walk, and my right knee hurts a little. *sigh* We were trying to get me on a good outside edge. I've been either switching to an inside edge right as I take off or right before. So I really need to break that habit. My skating this morning wasn't very productive. I worked on my Chorus Line program some, and I worked on MITF (and I found out I might not get to test until april :( boo). Things are progressing nicely. My sister said she thinks I'm about ready to start competing silver. I about fell over when she told me this because not two months ago had she said she thought it would be a while. So either I've improved dramaticaly in recent months, or she's changed her mind. :) Either way I'd like to at least be working on an axel before I start competing silver. I started trying them off-ice today. I used to be able to do them off ice, but today they were terrible. I'm not sure what that was about.
Tomorrow Ally and I are going to start learning our showskate routine. I'm pretty excited about it. I think it's going to be very cute. Alright...I'm off to bed. Early saturdays suck.

Another Awesome Skate

So I had another great skate tonight. I skated on both of the freestyles, and my sister worked with me almost the entire time! We worked on my camel spins. Those are coming along. I can at least feel what I should be doing. My sit spins are also getting better. We also worked alot on the flutz...really trying to get me on that outside edge. My niece and I started learning our routine for showskate. I'm excited about that.
I'm not feeling very chatty tonight, maybe I'll post more later.

Awesome skate

So I decided to hang around and skate the over-crowded wednesday night freestyle. My sister stayed and worked with me for a good half-hour which made me very happy. We worked on spins the whole time. We worked on getting me into more of a sit position on my sit spin, rather than leaning over, sticking my butt out. I had one at the very end that felt pretty good. I really wish I could see myself. *sigh* We also worked alot on camels. Those didn't go terrible. I was surprised that she told me I should keep my right side sort-of open as opposed to a spiral position. I've been trying to do it just like a spiral...so that made a difference. I can't wait to practice those more.
After she left I worked on jumping. My flutz is coming along nicely. I'm pretty consistent and even getting big jumps with the mohawk entrance. I tried to do a few with the back crossovers enterance since that is probably going to give me better technique. I did land a few, but I also fell on a few. I also did some loop-loops (which hurt my stress-injury...boooo), and I tried some toe-split jumps. Those feel pretty good. They feel like they might not be ugly. I just need to get my sister to look at them and tell me. If they're not ugly, maybe I can put one in my chorus line routine.
Synchro got cancelled tonight which I was a little bummed about, but that means I can go to bed early...I'm tired. Oh...and nationals start tomorrow!!! I'm beyond excited. The girl who won the novice ladies was at the houtson invitational in our locker room. Her coach was a real bitch, but I guess she fired her. Seems like that was probably a good decision.

Monday monday

Skating today went well. I love skating on monday afternoons because it's usually jsut me and 4 or 5 little kids. It's like having the ice all to myself. I ran through all of my pre-pre MIF. Overall they went okay. My back edges are getting better. I am forcing myself to just do them the whole length of the ice. Perfect or not. I'm trying to remind myself that at one time I couldn't do forward edges either and it didn't take very long to get those decent. My waltz 8s are feeling good, stroking and spirals as well. I'm still a little nervous about having the edges ready for the test on feb 18th, but I really need to get this test out of the way, because I still need to test Preliminary MIF before I can take my pre-bronze freeskate. I really wish I had started on all this a long time ago.
Other than MIF I worked on my usual list. Change foot spins are getting better. My backspin is getting much better since I started working on these. My sitspins were pretty on today. They felt much lower than usual (which doesn't say much). I tried a couple camels and they went okay.
I worked more on my flutzes, they went well. I'm still landing them consistently, now I just need to get off that pesky inside edge! I didn't work any on loop combos because my right leg has been bothering me.
Overall it was a good skate, I think I'm going to go ahead and turn in the paperwork for my test. It is just pass/retry, so I think they are a little more linient than other tests. Here's hoping at least. :)

30 minutes/week

30 minutes, that's all I would like with a coach. Any coach. My current coach, my sister, doesn't really have time for me, and as a result, I am largely self-taught. Which, as a result, means my technique isn't the best. So anyway...I'm considering asking another coach for a 30 minute lesson/week to just work on spins, jumps, and MIF. We'll see. Overall I've just been very frustrated with the progress I've made. I feel like I should be moving faster than I am, and I think more coaching would definately help that.
Other than the coaching stuff I've had a roller coaster of skating yesterday and today. Let's start with last night. I went to the freestyle, and the ice was still very soft which made it difficult to skate. I ended up falling 3 times on my flip (I can't remember the last time I actually fell on that jump). My sister did work with my some on my edges which was good. We talked about me leaning into them too much, and I'm not coming to the line straight...which is probably because my hoops are too shallow. So I've got to work on all of those things. I can't decide if I should go ahead and sign up for the test and cross my fingers I'll be ready. I only have one more week to decide.
This morning I went to the freestyle and I actuall landed some lutzes! I changed my entrance...I had been doing it from back crossovers, but I switched to doing a mohawk and two steps. This new entrance is letting me get into it without thinking so much, so it's letting me get the feeling for it. I'm still cheating a little bit in that I think I'm going onto an inside edge right as I pick, but I think that will come as I get more comfortable and maybe go back to the other entrance. I also worked on change foot spins, and those went remarkably well. I just need to get more comfortable on my backspin.
So for this week, I need to work on MIF...alot, change foot spins, sit spins, and my lutz. The first three are my priority. I'm going to Chicago this summer for ISI worlds with my synchro team, and I'm going to compete individually. I've been told that I should probably do freeskate 4, so I need to get the change foot and sit spin for that.
Okay...time for me to work on cutting music for showskate and for my ISI program.

No skating...again

The rink is closed again today. This time it's because the water supply line froze somehow making the ice too soft for skating (I don't really know...I don't know how rinks work). So anyway...we're finally above freezing, I'm back at work, and I can't even go skating today. :( BOO.

Snow day skate

The rink finally opened today and I got to go skating. My sister/coach didn't come, though because my niece didn't want to (something must be wrong with her). The ice was awesome because there were only about 6 people skating. I worked alot on Pre-pre MIF. Everything is feeling pretty okay. My forward stroking is good, of course CCW is much better than CW. My edges are all passable, except my back inside. They are downright aweful. I need some serious coach time on that. My spirals are good, except I'm having a hard time staying off my outside edge on my left one. Finally, my waltz 8's are much improved, and I am hitting that center mark pretty consistently.
Other than that I worked on loop-loops which I have never done before. They were surprisingly good, and I like them alot more than waltz-loops. I also worked on lutzes (sp?). Sheesh...I'm not sure why I'm having such a difficult time with these. If anybody has any tips, I would love to hear them.
I also worked alot on spins. After my competition this weekend, I realized I need to pick it up in the spin department. So I worked on camels, laybacks, and I started to attempt a scratch-back scratch, although that one didn't go so well.
Overall it was a good and productive skate.

I've also decided that I should post some of my goals for 2007:
1. Pass through Juvenile MIF (I'm hoping to test Pre-pre on feb 18, we'll see what my coach has to say)
2. Pass adult silver free skate
3. Of course, land an axel consistently, and maybe some doubles

Beyond that, I hope to compete in the 2008 adult nationals at the silver level, and I really would like to compete championship gold by 2009. I've got alot of hard work ahead of me before that can happen, though.